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My God is Black. It’s queer. It’s a symphony of masculine and feminine. It’s Audre Lorde and Sleater-Kinney. My God and my understanding of God are centered on who I am as a person and what I need to continue my connection to the divine,” Maxine explained. She took a long breath. “It’s everyone’s job to come up with a theodicy. One that has room for every inch of who they are and the person they evolve into.”
“Hello, sweet Juliet,” crooned Harlowe. “I brought us delicious things for dinner from my friend’s communist farm.”
A sentence I wish I could hear/say
As we ate, Harlowe told me about her communist friends with the farm who were also doulas and played in a hillbilly funk band.
My parents didn’t tell me that either. I had to find out on AMC that Natalie Wood was white, and I cried like a bitch that day. I felt robbed of something, as if a lie had been woven into the narrative of my Nuyorican identity.
same
Maybe America just swallowed all of us, including our histories, and spat out whatever it wanted us to remember in the form of something flashy, cinematic, and full of catchy songs. And the rest of us, without that firsthand knowledge of civil unrest and political acts of disobedience, just inhaled what they gave us.
To love another woman is to look at yourself in the mirror and determine that you are worthy of the galaxy and its fury. To love another woman is to love yourself more than you love her.”
Her consistent linking of genitals to gender as an absolute is violent as hell. It’s a closed fist instead of open arms, you know? And besides,” she added, staring at herself unflinching in the mirror, “womanhood is radical enough for anyone who dares to claim it.”
“You are your own person. If liking girls is a phase, so what? If it’s your whole life, who cares? You’re destined to evolve and understand yourself in ways you never imagined before.
Everyone had big ideas to share. They dropped phrases like radical politics, gender essentialism, and government-sanctioned inequality in between conversations about silver lipstick and the importance of self-care. Each cluster of humans wanted to take on the world and reimagine it. In the background, along with the bass thumping, was the sound of clippers buzzing.
